Benefits fears spark rise in pleas for help in Caithness
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CHANGES to how benefits will be paid are causing widespread anxiety throughout the Far North and the number of people seeking advice has shot up.
The Caithness Citizens Advice Bureau has reported an upsurge of 40 per cent from the previous year from members of the public who are looking for benefit advice and who are worried about the amount of money they are entitled to.
The figures were released by CAB manager Jill Smith who said that staff based at its Thurso and Wick offices have seen their workload increase significantly in the past year.
The UK Government will replace child tax credit, working tax credit, housing benefit, income support and others in favour of a single, universal credit from April 2013.
The coalition says the changes will save £7 billion in welfare spending and encourage people currently on benefits to go out and find a job.
But the changes have also attracted criticism from some who say that those who rely on these payments will be worse off.
Miss Smith told the John O’Groat Journal that the number of people who have been unable to work in the past may, under new rules, be reassessed.
“Changes to the benefit system that have been introduced by the Government have resulted in two-fifths of our total workload being related to these enquiries,” she said.
“With welfare reform there are a lot of changes taking place to the benefits system and people who are being reassessed for capability for work will see their incapacity benefit stopped and replaced with employment support allowance.
“The Government is trying to get people back into work while at the same time making changes to the benefits system, which has resulted in more people coming to us for advice.
“It has proven to be a very stressful time for people who we have spoken with.”
At a meeting held at the Pentland Housing Association in Thurso held in February, residents on benefits living in the Highland Council or housing association properties raised huge concerns that the amount of money that they are entitled to may be reduced if they are judged to be living in a house with more bedrooms than required, raising fears of homelessness becoming an issue in the county. Miss Smith said that with the recession showing no signs of being resolved in the near future, she expects the demand for advice to continue to grow in the next few years.
“The welfare reform is going to cause huge issues in the local community to people who are currently accessing the benefit system,” she said.
“There are so many changes happening, and the number of people who are reassessed and will see the amount of money they are entitled to drop will increase in the future.
“The number of people switching from incapacity benefit to job seekers’ allowances is happening now but when personal independent payments replaces disability living allowance next April we estimate demand for our services will grow even further.
“For people who rely on these payments, the next few years will be a very tough time.”
